CHRIS MARKER: World cinema lost one of its most brilliant mavericks when Chris Marker died at the age of 91 last July. TIFF Bell Lightbox hosts two tributes to the French filmmaker, photographer and writer this month. An exhibition of photos shot by Marker between the 1950s and 2010, Memory of a Certain Time is presented at the CIBC Canadian Film Gallery as part of the CONTACT festival. The Lightbox also presents a film retrospective that includes several titles that are either rarely screened or entirely new to Toronto screens. Marker’s fame as a director principally rests on two works: his 1982 travelogue-cum-essay-film Sans Soleil, which opens the four-night series on May 16, and the ingenious 1966 science-fiction short La Jétee, which plays May 17. Yet others deserve to be held in the same high regard. A frank but affectionate portrait of his fellow auteur Andrei Tarkovsky, One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevich screens May 19. Playing its belated Toronto premiere on May 17, the 1967 doc The Sixth Side of the Pentagon offers a clear-eyed yet unmistakably partisan look at the volatile events during the march on Washington by over 100,000 Vietnam War protesters on Oct. 21, 1967. Marker demonstrates a wry take on the slow fade of ‘60s radicalism in A Grin Without a Cat, a 1977 effort in which the director manages to deliver an astute survey of the political and social shifts of the previous decade while delving into some of his favourite subjects (most notably his love of feline companions). It’s not to be confused with 2004’s The Case of the Grinning Cat, which casts a typically skeptical eye at examples of political theatre in the early days of the new century. Marker’s final great film, it plays May 19.

SKULL WORLD + SLAUGHTER NICK FOR PRESIDENT: New to the Carlton this weekend, are two documentaries about Torontonians whose stories are as odd as any fiction. Skull World introduces viewers to Greg Sommer, a high-energy dude who’s at his most raucous when in the guise of his masked alter ego Skull Man. Director Justin McConnell’s film charts Sommer’s efforts to promote the pastime that’s closest to his heart: building cardboard costumes and competing in the amateur battles known as Box Wars. Meanwhile in Slaughter Nick for President, a journeyman Canadian actor named Rob Stewart makes the discovery that he’s famous in Serbia thanks to his starring role in a cheesy early-‘90s TV series. A Toronto filmmaking team captured the hero’s welcome that Stewart received when he visited the country in 2009. Skull World and Slaughter Nick for President both open May 10 at the Carlton.

GRACELAND: Returning for a theatrical run after an enthusiastic reception on the festival circuit (including a stop at last year’s Reel Asian), Graceland is a gritty and twisty kidnapping thriller set on the very mean streets of Manila. This impressive second feature by Filipino-American director Ron Morales opens May 10 at Lightbox.

PRE-CODE HOLLYWOOD: In 1934, Hollywood responded to accusations of promoting licentious lifestyles by imposing what became known as the Hays Code — the rigid censorship practices that ensued would last for decades. But before the movie biz cleaned up its act, it sure had some fun. All weekend at the Carlton, the Toronto Film Society presents a wild array of 24 Pre-Code favourites. Among the most notorious are 1932’s Blonde Venus, a star-making vehicle for Marlene Dietrich, and 1933’s Baby Face, a Barbara Stanwyck drama whose salacious content incensed the moral watchdogs of its day.

AQUI Y ALLA: A prize winner at the International Critics Week program in Cannes last year, Aqui y Alla (Here and There) is a drama about a poor Mexican family wracked by its patriarch’s troubles as a migrant worker in el Norte. Its Toronto run begins May 10 at the Big Picture Cinema.

FAT KID RULES THE WORLD: A sharp-witted teen flick that marks the directorial debut of actor turned filmmaker Matthew Lillard, Fat Kid Rules the World plays May 11 at 7 p.m. at TIFF Bell Lightbox to cap off a mini-edition of Rendezvous With Madness for Mental Health Week. A panel discussion follows the screening.

FESTS FOR RYERSON AND DEAF CINEMA: On May 8 and 9 at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema, the 16th annual Ryerson University Film Festival presents thesis film projects by students in the School of Image Arts. Featuring 20 shorts by Toronto’s next wave of auteurs, the two screenings start at 7 p.m. Then from May 9 to 14, the fourth annual Toronto International Deaf Film and Arts Festival celebrates what organizers call “deaf cinema,” i.e., work by and about the hearing impaired. Screenings take place at the Randolph Theatre at the Randolph Academy (736 Bathurst St.).

HOME FOR THE WEEKEND: The Toronto premiere of the latest award-winner by director Hans-Christian Schmid closes the Goethe Institut’s series of contemporary Germany films about the young, the old and cross-generational encounters. In Home for the Weekend, a thirty-something man’s visit to see his elderly parents goes awry when his mentally unstable mother stops taking her medication. Schmid’s film plays the Lightbox on May 12 at 6:30 p.m.

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